“We all do dumb crap, Lyr. Even divine death gods like you.”
His wild magic skimmed my skin, and I felt like I was melting into him. He’d literally traveled into the hell worlds to save me.
“Why did you bring me back?” I asked.
“Because I’d do anything for the true queen of Nova Ys.”
“And you weren’t worried that I’d come back monstrous like my mother?”
“Maybe a little worried, but you don’t seem any more monstrous than you did before.”
“You’re such a charmer.” I took a deep breath. “Salem came into the cave when you were holding me.”
“I saw him. Just before I slipped into the death realms, I saw a fae who burned like a star.”
“He’s gone. He was there when I woke up, and then he just disappeared, like smoke. I don’t know how. He still has my power. We have to find him at some point. But not right now. We have to get to Gina. My mother never told me where she was, so she’s still tied up somewhere, probably dying of dehydration. Where are the other knights? They’ll know where she is.”
“Still unconscious,” said Lyr. “Still possessed. I knocked them out before we entered the cave. But now, we have the athame.”
Chapter 40
As Lyr completed the spell over the knights, I stared at them. The spirits of the fuath shrieked, magic ripping them out of the knights’ bodies.
Night had fallen, and the moonlight washed them in silver. Stars twinkled in the purple sky.
Gwydion stood first, smoothing out his clothing.
“Where in the gods’ names are we?” He grimaced. “My mouth tastes as though I’ve been eating vinegar crisps.”
Midir retched. “I have an unsettling memory of licking a demon’s horn at some point.”
The other knights, not being demigods, moaned on the grass.
I rushed over to Midir, the only one who’d remembered anything. “Where is Gina?”
“What the fuck are you asking me? What happened, and why am I not wearing silk socks?” Panic flamed in his eyes. “I am wearing cotton socks. For the love of all that is holy, what the fuck is going on?”
I slapped his cheek, hoping to snap him out of it. It knocked his leafy crown askew on his ginger hair. “You remembered something—licking a demon’s horn, which … ew—but do you remember the rest? The fuath?”
Midir blinked. He cleared his throat, looking dazed that I slapped him. To my shock, he did not threaten to peel off my skin. “They were coming for us, weren’t they? And we needed an athame.”
Gwydion shuddered. “A fuath inside me. My body is a temple. It really is an outrage.”
“Where is Gina?” I shouted.
“Who the fuck is Gina?” Midir straightened his crown. “Lyr, your depraved captive is hurting my ears. Now that you apparently have found that athame, I think it is time to do the thing with her head on our gates.”
Gwydion made a face. “We’ll have to shave her head first, at least.”
“No one is killing anyone,” said Lyr. “And especially not the true queen of Ys.”
They stared at him.
Gwydion touched his forehead. “Okay, what in Beelzebub’s arsehole has happened while we were possessed?”
Lyr’s tattoos moved on his skin, his eyes glowing with gold. Now that he’d brought me back from the dead as well, this wouldn’t get any easier for him.
“Aenor didn’t destroy Ys,” he said. “It was an ancient fae named Salem. For just a moment, I saw him. And I know Aenor.”
Midir held his cheek where I’d slapped him. “Then who was controlling—”
“Look,” Lyr interrupted, “we can catch you up later. Two things need to happen, now. One, you need to remember where you left the human girl, and two, someone needs to bring Melisande to the dungeon.”
Gwydion heaved a sigh. “Fine. I vaguely remember the human girl. I don’t remember her name or what she looked like, but she’s tied up beneath a shop that sells frosted biscuits shaped like human baby faces.”
“That’s not vague,” said Lyr. “It’s very specific.”
Gwydion frowned. “The bakery is memorable. It’s honestly the creepiest part of Jerusalem.” He waved at the rocks behind us. “Including this bit, where they used to sacrifice people.”
I glanced back at the caves, a chill skimming up my spine. Salem’s true home, a place of human sacrifice. Not shocking. And I’d eaten his fruit, meaning he could always find me.
Still, we were finally making progress with Gina.
“Good!” I said. “We have a location. Anyone know where this bakery is?”
Gwydion sighed, pulling his phone out of his pocket. I’d had no idea the knights had phones. “Hang on. Oh, bloody hell. Did the fuath have data roaming turned on this whole time? Fuck pigeon.”
“Gwydion!” Lyr snapped. “Stay focused.”
“Calm your tits, I’m looking it up,” said Gwydion. “It’s not far.” He held up the phone to Lyr’s face. “See? On the map. A few streets away.”
“I’ve got it,” said Lyr. “Midir, I need you to find Melisande. She’s recovering near the market. Just follow the trail of blood; it won’t be hard. Bring her to the”—he waved a hand—“baby-face bakery. I’ll open the portal there. Gwydion, you stay here and wait till the other knights wake up. Bring them to the portal also. We’ll return to Acre while everyone recovers.”
I wanted to get Gina back right away.
But after that? Once I knew she was safe? I wanted to come back to Jerusalem. Salem was still here, hoarding my power.
My thoughts were on him as we started running back through the city walls. He was truly evil to his core.
And I’d given him power over me.
* * *
Gina sat on the stone floor in a cellar, surrounded by cookie crumbs. One half-eaten baby-faced cookie, with pink cheeks and a curl on its head, lay on the ground.
Tears streaked her cheeks, but she seemed to be fine. Lyr was ripping the bindings off her.
“I thought they were going to kill me. They kept feeding me those baby-face sweets, and I thought it was, like, a weird cult and maybe they were going to sacrifice me to a giant baby. Is that a thing that happens?”
I shook my head. “Spirits don’t understand human dietary needs very well.”
She sighed. “It’s a nut-free bakery, though. I made them check. They kept rolling their eyes like I was making up the allergy.”
At last, Lyr had her bindings free. She shot up with the energy of a million hot suns. She always had energy.
“What happens now? Are we staying in a hotel again?” She glanced at Lyr. “Is he your boyfriend? He’s well fit.”
“Better than a hotel.” I ignored the other questions. “I’m taking you to a crusader castle. Which, with any luck, is still standing after I lit it on fire.”
“You what?” said Lyr.
“Lit it on fire, a little? It’s probably fine.”
“She does that when she’s lying,” Gina pointed to my face. “That nose wrinkle she’s doing.”
I grabbed her hand. “Shhh. Come with me. I have to catch you up on one or two things. We just have to jump into a pit of icy water first.”
Chapter 41
Gina zoomed around the dining hall on roller skates while Midir scowled at her over his wildflower salad. “Remind me again,” he said. “When are we sending that human back to The Savoy?”
“Tomorrow,” said Lyr. “Aenor just wanted a little more time with her.”
Midir stopped eating, his fork hovering midair. “Aenor is not going with her? Please tell me she’s not staying here.”
I smiled at him. “I’m staying here.”
Gwydion chuckled. “This should get interesting.”
“Why?” asked Midir, his fork still suspended in the air.
“Because Salem still has my power—somewhere in Jerusalem, I think. And I want to get it back.”
Lyr and I had returned to Salem’s home
, exactly where I’d found the door days ago. Except, this time, there had been no door. We’d scoured the city once, and the cavern again. We hadn’t found him, but we weren’t done yet. I could still hear Salem’s music there, distantly.
“And then,” said Lyr, “the coronation in Nova Ys.”
I sighed. The others hadn’t protested that point as much as I’d anticipated. I guess if you wanted people to believe you, they had to hear it from a man.
Gwydion filled his wineglass. “I’m just shocked about Melisande. She didn’t even deny it. Just confessed right away. Granted, she was always a major bitch, but….” He took a long sip of his drink. “I guess I’m not surprised. I mean, I feel like I should be, but she was just always a full-on bitch. The only time I ever saw her cheerful was immediately after banging Lyr.”
Lyr put his head in his hands, like he’d been enduring centuries of his brothers’ bull crap.
Gwydion put his hand to his mouth in mock horror. “Oops. Should I not have brought that up?”
Midir stared at me. “Now that you mention it, Aenor seems more cheerful, now, doesn’t she?”
And that was my cue to leave.
I rose from the table. “You know, I’ve been meaning to pay Melisande a visit.” I snatched my wineglass up and refilled it before I left the table. As I took a step away, I glanced at Lyr, who was looking at me with curiosity. “I’m just going to talk to her. I’ll meet you right after.”
Gina looped around the large hall on the roller skates, her curls flying behind her. A lollipop stick jutted from her mouth.
I frowned at her as she circled round me. “Where did you get roller skates?”
She pulled out her lollipop. “Lyr found them for me. I told you he’d become your boyfriend and you two would fall in love. I have psychic powers.”
“No, you said Irdion would be my boyfriend, and he remains dead after I shot him.”
She shrugged. “Close enough.”
“You should go to sleep soon. Tomorrow, you’re back to London, and then you need to catch up on all your school stuff.”
She spun in a circle on her skates. “I don’t think I need school anymore. I’m going to become a knight like these guys.”
“That’s not even possible. You’re human.”
“I can become fae. There’s a spell for everything.” She popped the lollipop back in her mouth. “You just need to get reading.”
“Go to sleep, Gina.”
She nodded at the silky cloak I wore, the color of moss. “But look at you. Dressed like them. You like it here, too.”
I looked down at the cloak and long gown I wore. This wasn’t quite me, although the silk did feel nice.
Gina skated off again, and I headed down the long corridor. Had it really only been a few days ago that Lyr had dragged me out of the dungeon here? That seemed insane.
A hollow ache in my chest darkened my mood. So much had changed. I’d desperately wanted my mother to come back, and I’d found myself so close to her—only to find that death had corrupted her.
But maybe she’d always been a bit … off? Since the day she killed my father, she’d worn her blood-stained wedding dress.
I thought of Salem laughing at me when I said I wasn’t an abomination.
What makes you think you’re not?
Nobody feels evil.
I’d figured out what had bothered me the most about Lyr’s story about his mother.
His mother had been publicly executed, and even if no one spoke about it openly afterward, my mother would have known about it. But she’d agreed to marry my dad anyway. She’d jumped at the chance to marry a king who’d slaughtered his last fiancée that way.
My entire body felt cold as I crossed down the old, dank stairs to the dungeons.
It was hard to reconcile this calculating version of my mother—the warped, slightly psychotic one—with the same woman who’d combed my hair and held me in her lap when I’d skinned my knees.
I’d had well over a century to get used to the idea of her being dead, so I didn’t know why I felt so sad. I was close to two centuries old, and it was absurd to think I needed someone to comfort me at this stage. I was Aenor, Flayer of Skins, for crying out loud.
For some reason, tears pricked my eyes as I crossed into the dark dungeon hallway.
I glanced into Debbie’s cell as I passed. Her delicate frame lay curled up in the corner, her pink hair draped over thin shoulders. I pulled my cloak off, then slid it between the bars for her.
Still clutching my dandelion wine, I crossed a few more cell doors down.
Melisande sat slumped in the corner of her cell, dirt smudged on her body. Her wing stumps and throat were bandaged, though dark blood stained the gauze.
When she saw me, she didn’t even muster up enough energy for an enraged scowl. She just looked … defeated.
“Aenor,” she said in a dull tone, her eyes on the stone. “You cut my wings off. You little bitch….”
“On the plus side, I did leave you alive.”
“That’s not a plus side. That was an additional cruelty.”
I stared at her. “I don’t understand why you’d betray everyone here for the crown of an island you’ve never even been to. What’s the point?”
Now, for the first time, her eyes sharpened, and she was staring at me like a bird of prey. “What’s the point? Have you not noticed how they operate here? They eat before us, the council of three. Three males, making all the decisions. I follow orders. I’m good enough to fuck, but not good enough to consult on decisions. Not good enough to trust with all the secrets they keep among themselves.
“Once, women ruled the fae world. We were treated like goddesses. Your mother brought all that back. A true fae queen, just like the old days. And I was going to be her successor, reviving the old House of Marc’h, ruled by women centuries ago. All I wanted was the power I deserved.”
I felt strangely sad for her. “It didn’t really work out, did it?”
Her gaze went unfocused again. “I can smell Lyr on you. Don’t think for a second he’ll treat you as an equal. When you’re drinking that dandelion wine up there in his room, don’t think you’ll be any different.”
Her lips looked completely parched, and I handed her my glass of dandelion wine through the bars. “Here.”
She leaned closer, eying me suspiciously. Then, she snatched the wine and drank it down thirstily.
“Just so you know,” I said, “my mother was never going to make you queen. She wanted it for herself. She was just using you to get the fuath closer to Lyr.”
Melisande wiped a hand across her mouth, glaring at me. But it seemed she was done talking.
I turned and started crossing out of the cells, but as I passed Debbie’s cell, she called to me.
“Hey, you bang the meaty hands guy yet?”
“Sure did, Debbie.”
“Nice one, Tennessee. Thanks for the cloak.” Her large eyes blinked up at me.
I hugged myself as I reached the stairs again. Melisande had been a force of nature before I’d cut her down. Imagine how powerful we would have been if we’d joined forces instead of trying to destroy each other?
When I reached the top of the stairs, I headed for Lyr’s room.
I pushed through the door, and I found him sitting perfectly still on his bed. The breeze whispered through the window, toying with his pale hair. His powerful body beamed with gold.
He was sitting too still, like a predatory animal. He’d shifted again, eyes glowing gold; his crown strained into the air above his head, reaching for the heavens….
When the door closed behind me, his head whipped toward me, and his eyes faded to blue.
“Aenor.” The way he said my name sometimes raised goosebumps on my skin.
I flashed him a smile, and he rose. He crossed to me, scooped me up in his powerful arms, and dropped me on the bed. He was shirtless—again—and I let my hands linger over his muscled chest. Already, my pulse was rac
ing.
He moved between my legs, my dress riding all the way up to the top of my thighs. I hooked my legs around him, and he kissed my neck. His mouth felt so good on me, and he was stroking the top of my lace panties—
But there was something I needed to tell him, and it couldn’t wait anymore.
I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Lyr,” I whispered into his ear.
“Mmmm?”
I pulled back a little, and I looked into his deep blue eyes. “I have to tell you something important.”
“Is it about how much you want me?”
I had to tell him about Salem. “When I was looking for the athame, the Nameless One captured me. Salem. He chained me up, and he wouldn’t let me go until I did something for him.”
I felt Lyr’s entire body go rigid, and rage burned in his gold eyes. “What?’
“He wanted me to eat a piece of fruit. It was enchanted, somehow. And he said it meant he’d always be able to find me.”
A heavy silence fell over Lyr, and he seemed to be struggling to stay in control, to not let the Ankou take over. He looked as if he were vibrating with fury.
A muscle twitched in his jaw. “What does he want?”
“I don’t know. He just said that he might need my help for something. He said he wants me to use my power.”
“So, he’ll give it back?”
I wanted to kill Salem, but I had to be calculating. If there was a chance he’d give me my power back, then I’d wait till he returned it to me. “That’s what he said.”
Lyr leaned down, grazing his teeth over my throat. There was something possessive in the gesture. He kissed my neck deeply, running his tongue over my throat until I moaned, moving my hips against him.
When he pulled away again, he murmured into my neck, “Salem is not trustworthy. He is the man who destroyed Ys. He’s the one who killed your mother. You can’t wait for him to give you your power back and hope that he’s good on his word. I just need to kill him. I’ll rip out his heart, and I won’t let him get anywhere near you.”
My heart sank at that thought, even though the logical part of my mind knew that he had a point.
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